Today’s letters: The fluoridation divide

Re: Water Fluoridation Meets Its Waterloo, Nov. 17.
I am disappointed with the claim that Waterloo dentists did not mount a more effective public awareness campaign during the recent referendum on water fluoridation.
The Ontario Dental Association and local dentists worked diligently to bring the facts on fluoridation to the citizens of Waterloo. We participated in a televised forum. We granted interviews to local media and published advertisements in the papers. We invited the public to an information night. We came armed with the research of more than 90 national and international medical and scientific organizations, endorsing the benefits of water fluoridation. I am further disappointed that if “virtually” every Waterloo councillor supports water fluoridation, why those councillors continue to support a vote which does not represent their constituents and now stands to put their community’s oral health care at risk.
For the good of the many, I ask the Region of Waterloo to keep fluoride in the water.Dr. Ira Kirshen, past president, Ontario Dental Association, Richmond Hill, Ont.

My husband and I, born in the 1940s in South Africa, have cavities in almost every tooth in our mouths. Our three sons, who are now entering their 40s, have one cavity between them. We gave them fluoride tablets, as the water was not fluoridated where we lived when they were young. Their consequent lack of cavities is certainly not genetics at work.J. Oppenheimer, Toronto.

Re: The Tyranny Of Quackery, letter to the editor, Nov. 16,
Dr. Graham Berlyne’s letter on the dangers of removing fluoride from our water supplies might have carried some weight had he cited reason and science rather than resorting to bluster and name calling. In reality very few countries — none in continental Europe, for example — fluoridate their water. Are we then to assume, as Dr. Berlyne’s “logic” would have it, that European doctors and scientists are quacks?Gary O’Shaughnessy, Edmonton.

Re: Why Fluoride-Phobia Refuses To Go Away, Jonathan Kay, Nov. 18.
Leaving aside whether water fluoridation is good, bad, safe or even a desirable necessity, the issue should be about whether people are comfortable with compulsory mass medication. Obviously the well-informed Jonathan Kay and the pro-fluoride lobby know best but just because they know what’s good for you (and the anti-fluoride folk are nothing but cranks and crackpots) doesn’t and shouldn’t mean they should have the right to force fluoride on the unwashed masses.Bruce Korol,Calgary.

If wait times are long now …

Re: Wait-time Problem Continues To Fester, Nov. 18.
What is being neglected in conversations on our health-care system is the enormous social and economic consequences of aging. By 2031, Statistics Canada projects there will be almost 1.2 million Canadians aged 85 and over, almost five times the current figure. In 1930 there were 60 people working for every retired person. Today there are four persons working for every retired person. By 2030 there will be two. Even if we diverted every tax-dollar into the public health-care system, at some point in the next 20-25 years the money will run out.
Problems with our health-care system cannot be solved by continually increasing the funding. We need to look for alternative solutions.Gary Rose, chair of Canadian Initiative For Elder Planning Studies, Toronto.

It’s rape, not sex

Re: 12-Year-Olds Have Sex With Adults: Study, Nov. 17.
This article did a poor job at addressing the issue of adults having sex with 12-year-olds. Children cannot consent to sex. The language used in this article was very accepting of this form of rape. The title alone suggests consensual sex. This article also made it sound as if raising the age of consent was a bad thing.
When any child “has sex” with an adult, it is rape, so labelling it as “sex” is completely inaccurate.Kelly Fairchild, Toronto.

Laughable red light warning

Re: Ottawa Warns Of Sex Trade Centre, Nov. 18.
Ottawa’s proclamation that sex workers will move to Ontario and that it will become “Canada’s prostitution hub” is laughable. Most sex workers feel they have no other job options; it is highly unlikely that they possess the resources to move and take up residence in an expensive city like Toronto. Those who do are probably not the type of sex worker that most Canadians envision when they hear the word “prostitute.”
In any event, a red light district is hardly the worst thing that could happen to Toronto. Those who don’t want to participate are free to avoid the area. How about we turn our attention to lax gun laws and bullying in schools; things that have a direct, substantial and far more negative impact on a much higher percentage of the population.Jessica Barrett, Mississauga, Ont.

RLQ responds

Re: Jean Charest: No One To Blame But Himself, editorial, Nov. 17.
As one of the co-founders of the Réseau Liberté-Québec (RLQ), I totally agree with your editorial on Jean Charest. I just want to reiterate that the RLQ is not and will not become a political party. We are a forum for ideas and want to expand the debate in Quebec. We want the old separatists/federalist debate to be replaced by the more relevant left/ right debate. It is because of the consensus of our political and journalist classes in Quebec, that there is an artificial consensus of left-wing politics and an ongoing constitutional debate which goes nowhere. It’s time for Quebecers to start having the same discussions about the economy and their society that happen everywhere else in the Western world. Jean Charest came to power talking about cutting the deficit, reducing taxes and decreasing the size of the state. He has totally lost his way.Roy Eappen, Montreal.

Free speech on our campuses

Re: Support Abortion Or Stay Off Campus, Club Told, Nov. 17.
I may support abortion rights, but I am appalled by the Fascist dictates of the Carleton University Student Association in giving an anti-abortion rights group two days to repent or be banned from campus. What next? Will non-repentant students be burned at the stake? It is becoming all too common now for left-wing student associations to discriminate against ‘’heretics” while hiding behind the excuse of non-discrimination. Even more alarming is the seeming unwillingness of university authorities to get involved in defending the right of free speech on campus. They are guilty of letting the inmates run the asylum.Norman Russell, Toronto.

I am a third-year student at Carleton University. Year after year, our student union, CUSA, has shown it does not value freedom of speech. The list of times it has made a mockery of democracy and fundamental freedom of speech would be quite exhaustive. Censorship is the name of the game at CUSA.Delroy Dyer, Carleton University Student, Ottawa.

Re: Censorship On Campus, editorial, Nov. 18.
In reference to this editorial, can you please clear up a small point? How are the abhorrent actions of the University of Waterloo students who denied Christie Blatchford the right to speak any different from the actions of the protesters at York University who want to stop George Galloway from speaking?
The denial of free speech is the denial of free speech — period. If, as you advocate, universities must be places of free expression and the exchange of conflicting ideas, then all speakers, be they Blatchford, Steyn, Coulter or Galloway, must be allowed their say.David Morgan, Moncton.

Re: York Threatens Legal Action Over Rabbi’s Accusations, Nov. 18.
What York University president Mamdouh Shoukri does not seem to understand is that if he supports one groups’ right to free speech but prevents another, he is inviting people to question his intent.
Specifically, in the past year, has supported the hate-fest known as Israel Apartheid Week, but stopped the “Imagine with Us” student-led event which opposed IAW. Similarly, he permitted the Hamas supporter, George Galloway, to speak this week, but refused Daniel Pipes, a strong friend of Israel. Less tangible, but nevertheless true, is the consistent and repeated reports of Jewish students feeling marginalized and fearful while on campus; no other religious group has made these claims.
If Mr. Shoukri wants to prove to the Toronto community that he is not showing “amazing tolerance for anti-Semitism and lack of vigilance regarding the feeling of safety for Jewish students on campus,” significant changes must be made now.Ruth Ekstein, Thornhill, Ont.

Islam always under attack in Europe

Re: ‘Doomed’ Religion, letter to the editor, Nov. 18.
Your Thursday letter writer deplores the dwindling number of Christian in the Middle East. However, let’s not forget about the complete annihilation of Muslims in Spain, Malta, Sicily and other countries. Just a decade back, we watched the fate of Bosnian Muslims at the hands of the well-armed Serbian Orthodox militias as they were determined to wipe out both the Bosnian Muslims and the Kosovar Muslims.
Christian Europe historically provided no room for other religions on the continent; recent laws governing minarets and hijabs again show this hypocrisy.Rizwan Jabbar, Toronto.

Trusting Fantino

Re: How Caledonia Was Betrayed, Father Raymond J. de Souza, Nov. 18.
How ironic that after heading an organization that totally abandoned a group of law-abiding Ontario citizens in one Ontario community, Julian Fantino now has the gall to ask voters in another to let him represent them in Parliament.Robert Vogel, Toronto.

Royal example

Re: Britain Finally Gets Its Long- Awaited Proposal, Nov. 17.
If I understand this story, the future head of the Church of England is enjoying sex before marriage. What a refreshing example for all those faithful who try to educate their kids in respect to the holy institution of matrimony.Michael Magner, Drummondville, Que.
Hell has a special place for them
Re: Fundamentalists, Go Home, Afsun Qureshi-Smith, Nov. 16.
My parents were genuine refugees and lived most of their lives in Toronto. But they were not loyal to Canada, and never considered their Canadian-born children or grandchildren to be Canadian. Their saving virtue was that they never expected their children to go to Europe and fight another war on their behalf.
The Muslim fundamentalists that Afsun Qureshi-Smith describes (“They want things like shariah law invoked, and they criticize the values of democracy, secularism and liberalism in the West”) are indeed hypocrites. Read Dante’s Divine Comedy. There is a special place in hell reserved for people who betray their benefactors.
Paul Cerar, Toronto.

In the wake of a Grammy Awards ceremony that disappointed many, from Kanye West to the masses on Twitter lamenting the state of pop music, a historical perspective is key. Few are better poised to offer one than Andy Kim.